> Why are Americans so against a national registry? What are the actual arguments against it? For better or for worse, Americans have a strong distrust of gove

> Why are Americans so against a national registry? What are the actual arguments against it? For better or for worse, Americans have a strong distrust of government in our civic DNA - the more centralized, the more distrust. The very design of our country's government is intended to distribute power as much as feasible, while doing only the bare minimum of activities at a national level. This design has been eroded over time (the 20th century in particular did a huge number on it), but many Americans still hold that vision dear. Thus, any proposal of "let's do a centralized X" is automatically controversial in the US in a way which it simply would never be in many other countries. > Pretty every other developed country has one. This sort of argument is not a good reason for anyone to do anything, but it's especially not a good reason for countries to base their national policies on.